France and Germany renew vows in united front against populists

The ceremony will follow in the footsteps of Charlemagne and will take place in the city of AachenGETTY IMAGES

Like an old married couple, France and Germany are planning to “renew their vows” in a grandiose ceremony this month intended to confirm their role as the motor of European integration and seize back the initiative from increasingly assertive populists across the Continent.

Despite signs of waning support in both countries for “more Europe”, it was announced last week that President Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, would sign a co-operation treaty on January 22. It will replace the ground-breaking Elysée treaty concluded by their predecessors, Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer, on the same day in 1963.

The setting for the ceremony will be the medieval town hall in the western German city of Aachen — Aix–la Chapelle to the French — from which…

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